Tong Zhonggui (; born January 23, 1963), known by the pen name of Su Tong () is a Chinese writer. He was born in
Suzhou
Suzhou (; ; Suzhounese: ''sou¹ tseu¹'' , Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Soochow, is a major city in southern Jiangsu province, East China. Suzhou is the largest city in Jiangsu, and a major economic center and focal point of trad ...
and lives in
Nanjing
Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), Postal Map Romanization, alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu Provinces of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and t ...
.
He entered the Department of Chinese at
Beijing Normal University
Beijing Normal University (BNU, ), colloquially known as Beishida (), is a public research university located in Beijing, China, with a strong emphasis on humanities and sciences. It is one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in Chin ...
in 1980, and started to publish novels in 1983. He is now vice president of the Jiangsu Writers Association. Known for his controversial writing style, Su is one of the most acclaimed novelists in China.
Work
Su has written seven full-length novels and over 200 short stories, some of which have been translated into English, German, Italian and French.
He is best known in the West for his novella ''
Raise the Red Lantern'' (originally titled ''Wives and Concubines''), published in 1990. The book was adapted into the film, ''
Raise the Red Lantern'' by director
Zhang Yimou
Zhang Yimou (; born 2 April 1950) is a Chinese film director, producer, writer, actor and former cinematographer.Tasker, Yvonne (2002). "Zhang Yimou" i''Fifty Contemporary Filmmakers'' Routledge Publishing, p. 412. . Google Book Search. Retriev ...
. The book has since been published under the name given to the film in the English version and in some other versions. His other works available in English translation are ''
Rice
Rice is the seed of the grass species '' Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly '' Oryza glaberrima'' (African rice). The name wild rice is usually used for species of the genera '' Zizania'' and ''Porteresia'', both wild and domestica ...
'', ''My Life as Emperor'', ''
Petulia's Rouge Tin'' (''Hongfen'' in Chinese), ''Binu and the Great Wall'' (tr.
Howard Goldblatt), ''Madwoman on the Bridge and Other Stories'', ''Tattoo: Three Novellas'' and ''The Boat to Redemption'', also translated by Goldblatt.
His novel ''Petulia's Rouge Tin'', about two Shanghai prostitutes at the time of Liberation in 1949, has been adapted to two films:
Li Shaohong's ''
Blush'' (''Hongfen'', 1994) and
Huang Shuqin's ''Rouged Beauties'' (''Hongfen Jiaren'', 1995).
In 2009, he was awarded the
Man Asian Literary Prize for his work ''The Boat to Redemption'', the second Chinese writer to win the prize.
In 2011, Su Tong was nominated to win the
Man Booker International Prize
The International Booker Prize (formerly known as the Man Booker International Prize) is an international literary award hosted in the United Kingdom. The introduction of the International Prize to complement the Man Booker Prize was announc ...
. In 2015, he was a co-winner of the
Mao Dun Literature Prize
Mao Dun Literature Prize () is a prize for novels, established in the will of prominent Chinese writer Mao Dun (for which he personally donated 250,000 RMB) and sponsored by the China Writers Association. Awarded every four years, it is one of t ...
for ''Yellowbird Story''.
Selected works in translation
* ''Open-Air Cinema: Reminiscences and Micro-Essays from the Author of Raise the Red Lantern''. Translators Haiwang Yuan, James Trapp, Nicky Harman, Olivia Milburn. Horsham: Sinoist Books. October 2021.
* ''Shadow of the Hunter''. Translator James Trapp. London: ACA Publishing. May 2020.
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** Includes ''Raise the Red Lantern'', ''Nineteen Thirty-four Escapes'' (), and ''Opium Family'' (). The second novella, told in the first person, is about an impoverished peasant family. The third story is about an opium poppy-growing family that experiences hardship; this work is told in both the first and third person perspectives.
** In the latter two novellas, Duke had stated "that wherever the English seems strange it is because the Chinese was also purposefully so".
Gary Krist of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' felt the translations had a "rambling nature" that became "merely awkward, unrevealing and occasionally tedious."
[ Because of Duke's statement, Krist was unsure whether the awkwardness came from Su Tong or from Duke.][ ]Publishers Weekly
''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...
stated that a "hand-me-down quality of oral history" where the reader is unsure of the truth is reflected in ''Nineteen Thirty-four Escapes''.[ Publishers Weekly praised how the third novella shifts perspectives and wrote that ''Opium Family'' is "the most structurally and thematically complex of the novellas."][
]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Su, Tong
1963 births
Living people
Beijing Normal University alumni
Writers from Suzhou
International Writing Program alumni
Mao Dun Literature Prize laureates
Chinese male novelists
20th-century Chinese short story writers
Chinese male short story writers
20th-century Chinese male writers
People's Republic of China short story writers
Short story writers from Jiangsu